1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conductive paste for external electrodes, capable of resolving degradation in connectivity between external electrodes and internal electrodes and defective plating due to glass detachment, a multilayered ceramic electronic component using the same, and a fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as electronic products have been reduced in size, a multilayered ceramic electronic component has been required to be small and to have a large capacity.
In line with the requirements for a multilayered ceramic electronic component to have a small size and a large capacity, external electrodes of the multilayered ceramic electronic component are also becoming thinner.
An external electrode paste may be formed using a conductive metal such as copper (Cu) as a main material in order to guarantee chip air-tightness and electrical connectivity with a chip, and formed using glass as an auxiliary material in order to fill an empty space when the metal is sintered to be contracted and provide bonding force between external electrodes and the chip.
As for the glass, oxide-based glass powder is generally used, and the external electrode paste is applied to an end portion of the chip and sintered to form external electrodes, and thereafter, nickel (Ni) and tin (Sn) are sequentially electroplated to form plated layers.
However, the addition of oxide-based glass to the external electrode paste to form external electrodes may have the following defects.
First, glass may cover the internal electrode in a firing process, damping connectivity between internal electrodes and external electrodes.
Second, since glass may be eluted to the outside of the external electrode layer in the firing process, defective plating may occur in a plating process after the firing process.
In particular, as external electrodes have become thinner, it has been difficult to implement a desired level of compactness (or denseness), and the possibility of a defective product has increased due to a lack or excess of glass in terms of high temperature behavior characteristics of the glass.